On April 13th, the topic #ShopOwnerExplainsWhyWomen’sClothingIsGettingSmaller# surged to the number one spot on Weibo’s national trending list. Liu Yilin, the manager of “New Girl” at Hangzhou Zhongzhou Women’s Clothing City, said: “If the clothes are made larger, girls who wear small sizes won’t buy them; if the clothes are deliberately made smaller, plus-size girls might think they can’t wear them but actually can, and they will feel pleasantly surprised and come to buy them.” What exactly is this “surprise”? The shop owner took out a top that she considered very large and said that if small-size clothes were also this large, women with good figures wouldn’t have a sense of superiority. It can be seen that, in this shop owner’s view, the standard for women buying clothes is whether the clothes can show off their “good figure.” When it comes to buying clothes, class distinctions also come into play. Simple working-class women won’t buy JK uniforms, Hanfu, Lolita fashion, nor will they buy such revealing clothing that prides itself on fitting into size S. Those who like to wear revealing clothes to show off their sense of superiority are only a very small number of parasitic class women who do not engage in productive work. Under the influence of the patriarchal society, they are content to be men’s sexual tools and household slaves, racking their brains to dress in ways that appeal to bourgeois men, worrying about not being white enough, young enough, or thin enough. Under this video, female netizens unanimously expressed dissatisfaction and anger at Liu Yilin’s remarks, stating that buying clothes that fit according to the standard is reasonable, and they condemned the reality of women’s clothing shrinking.
It is indisputable that women’s clothing sizes in China have been shrinking in recent years. This phenomenon cannot be explained by Liu Yilin’s idealistic view—that women like to wear smaller sizes to show off their “good figure.” Some netizens pointed out, “A few years ago, someone weighing 100 jin (about 50 kg) could wear size S, but now someone weighing 90 jin (about 45 kg) has to wear size S.” The fabric used in women’s clothes is also getting less and less, with some short sleeves becoming as narrow as children’s clothing. Some netizens reported that the L-size tops they bought fit their small dogs perfectly. Comparing size charts from 10 mainstream women’s clothing brands in 2012 and 2022, the median waist circumference labeled “M size” dropped from 70cm to 67cm, and the hip circumference from 92cm to 89cm. According to data from the “Chinese Adult Body Dimensions GB/T10000-1988” (issued by the National Technical Supervision Bureau on December 10, 1988, and officially implemented on July 1, 1989), 90% of women aged 18-55 have waist circumferences above 68cm. However, among the best-selling waist sizes of pants on Taobao, even the L-size waist of loose sweatpants is less than 70cm.
Along with the shrinking of women’s clothing sizes, “short, tight, and revealing” clothing characterized by the “white, thin, and young” aesthetic has become popular. This style began to spread in China in the late 2010s, initially called the “BM” style, originating from the Italian girl’s brand Brandy Melville. This brand offers only one size for all items, and that size is a small S. Notes related to “BM style” on Xiaohongshu increased by over 500% in 2019, and the TikTok (Douyin) topic “BM girls” has over 1 billion views. This style reflects women’s status as men’s appendages in capitalist society. Previously, a “BM girl ideal height chart” caused controversy online: for a height of 150 cm, weight can only be 33 kg; for 160 cm, weight can only be 47 kg; if weighing 61 kg, height must be 180 cm! With the popularity of the “BM style,” the aesthetic of white, young, and thin has reached its peak. This is not just a fashion trend but also a manifestation of the strengthening of revisionist reactionary and decadent tendencies.
In recent years, the shrinking of women’s clothing sizes has increasingly caused dissatisfaction among Chinese women. The revisionist faction dispatched the reactionary newspaper “China Women’s News” to intervene, attempting to ease the conflict. The newspaper once commented on the shrinking sizes phenomenon: “Women’s clothing sizes getting smaller is promoting an extreme thinness aesthetic, ‘shrinking’ what should be diverse freedom in dressing, and is a silent form of ‘body bullying’ against girls.” While “China Women’s News” seems to criticize the current “white, young, thin” aesthetic, the phrase “freedom in dressing” reveals its reactionary nature. Founded after the restoration of revisionism and with its masthead written by Deng Xiaoping, the paper’s reactionary nature is fully exposed. In capitalist society, freedom is not true freedom. While supporting dressing freedom, “China Women’s News” does not explicitly attack the “white, young, thin” aesthetic, nor does it oppose the class and gender oppression embodied by this aesthetic; it only vaguely mentions “body bullying.” The “dressing freedom” promoted by “China Women’s News” means more diverse bourgeois aesthetics. Essentially, it says that the ways to serve beauty are not limited to becoming thinner but can include other “beauty servitudes.” Women’s clothing sizes continue to shrink, and “short, tight, and revealing” clothing remains popular.
